Saturday, November 28, 2009

Yo Mick here, the canine who’s looking rather ill…and all because of bullies! (the bully saga continues…)

We’ve been so busy dealing with bullies that there’s been little time to write – well that’s not exactly true – but after the emotional beatings and physical beatings who feels up to writing?

Red got beat up at school, Mum’s being beat up with bullies who are criminal – white collar crime type criminal – and both are really huge legal issues… and well, I’ve been trying to comfort as I can.

Mum won’t let me take a bite out of any of the bullies – and trust me that requires a lot of control on my part!

So there it is, the cryptic explanations for not posting the past couple of months, that say nothing about anything at all and nothing about the stress and trauma of dealing with bullies.Oh my - do not get me started!

But really, what is there to say? Mum’s said we are to be mum about all of that for now (I did mention legal issues right?). There is much I’d like to talk about but as mum’s requested, I won’t talk about the personal side of being bullied just yet.

So here I am sharing the explanation of why the silence and a call for more research and 411 on the subject of bullies and autism - and just bullies.

Some bullies are obvious (well maybe not entirely to everyone) and then there are bullies who are not so obvious – the type who pretend to befriend and “help” but are really only serving themselves. There are bullies in schools, the workplace, the park, community, the government; even places of worship have bullies.

Bullies are everywhere!

There have been several news articles about bullies and autism… imagine that! In particular, the Boston globe shared the results of a MAC (Massachusetts Advocates for Children) report on bullying (to download your own copy: http://www.massadvocates.org/home )

Although there were nearly 90% of parents who answered that their child with autism was bullied, children are not a number – this report shares some of the stories…

Stories of bullying, they make me droopy eared and break mum’s heart, but we’d like to hear more and with permission possibly share them. So if you feel so inclined, please, we’d like to know your bully story – how it began, was there a “trigger”, was there a resolution, a particular helpful strategy???

If there are some helpful sites or books we’re all ears, even if they are a bit droopy at the moment.

here's what I know for sure about bullying - Bullying must be stopped!

So please help, share your story, share what you know about bullies, research etc. we want to know!

Thanks in advance, and stay tuned… I am sure there will be more information about autism and bullies, and our own continuing bully saga ...